Results of concert site test disputed

By Suzanne Carlson
Journal Inquirer
Published: Friday, January 22, 2010 2:55 PM EST

VERNON — Thursday’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting was another long, anxious night for residents waiting to discuss the TicketNetwork Forest LLC concert venue, proposed for a site on a commercially zoned parcel on South Frontage Road a quarter mile from residential neighborhoods.

The third in what will be a series of at least five hearings on the proposed concert venue was moved to the auditorium of the Senior Center after the Jan. 7 meeting overwhelmed Town Hall council chambers, leaving many attendees in the hall, cut off from the proceedings.

Despite the change in venue for Thursday’s hearing, every seat in the auditorium was filled and many were left sitting on the floor along the walls or standing in the back.

Commission Chairman Lester Finkle told the audience at the start that they would not be able to speak at the meeting because the acoustics consultant would be going over his findings from a sound test performed in October.

A special hearing also will be held Feb. 3 solely to continue the applicant’s presentation, and then members of the public will be able to speak at the regular hearing on Feb. 4.

Donald Vaccaro, CEO of TicketNetwork, as well as the lead lawyer for the application, Dorian R. Famiglietti, spent more than an hour addressing concerns from the board regarding Bubaris Traffic Associates’ presentation at the Jan. 7 meeting. Vaccaro said that he has been a Vernon resident for 22 years and wants to be a “good neighbor.”

Bennett M. Brooks, senior consultant for Brooks Acoustics Corp., then presented his acoustic analysis of the concert site, claiming that decibel levels of music from public address speakers at the site were tested at five separate residential locations around the proposed venue. According to Brooks and Famiglietti, decibel levels at the residential testing sites fell below the range of “crickets and leaves.”

Several commissioners questioned Brooks as to the veracity of these claims.

Adding to the confusion was the fact that Vaccaro consistently said that the sound levels were “within EPA guidelines.” But according to the Environmental Protection Agency the federal regulatory body “does not have any regulatory authority governing noise in local communities.”

The town also does not have a noise ordinance, but the state Department of Environmental Protection does regulate sound levels, and it is those regulations that the venue must adhere to.

Famiglietti said that even when the test crew stood at the closest residential spot to the proposed concert site they could not hear the music.

“The only area you could discern the music from time to time was on Valley Falls Road and it was a shock to all of us. Truly, you heard it periodically, you didn’t hear a constant flow of music,” Famiglietti said.

But at the end of the meeting, Town Planner Len Tundermann said that Police Chief James Kenny had received several phone calls complaining of the noise on the day of the testing.

Famiglietti then acknowledged that one individual had approached them during testing to ask what they were doing, and Vaccaro said that he was aware of one complaint registered with the police.

But the police chief said today that his office was inundated with phone calls complaining about the noise.

“We were receiving phone calls, the mayor’s office was receiving phone calls regarding the testing, Kenny said. “Our officers went out and talked to them and asked them to shut down the testing early,” he said.

“We had one complaint from individuals with horses who were very upset because the animals were bothered by the noise,” Kenny added.

The individual who approached Famiglietti in the field on Valley Falls Road spoke with the Journal Inquirer but requested his name not be used.

“I figured it was coming from the kids down the street who have parties now and then, so I got in my truck and drove down there and found the lawyer in the field,” he said.

The man said he asked the team to tone it down as it was upsetting his animals, but Famiglietti said that it wasn’t their problem because there’s no noise ordinance in town.

“She said ‘we have a permit,’ so I called the police,” he said.

According to Kenny, officers shut down testing soon after.